Aliyah Ayash: Eight-year-old girl’s head splits ‘like an egg’ after horror accident in Bali when she fell from a diving board at Mrs Sippy pool bar
An eight-year-old girl’s head cracked ‘like a boiled egg’ after falling from a high diving platform at a swimming pool in Bali.
Aliyah Ayash, eight, fell six meters onto a concrete edge at the Mrs Sippy bar and pool in 2022 and now suffers from memory loss.
She was rushed to hospital in Denpasar, where she underwent emergency surgery to reduce swelling in her brain.
Aliyah was then flown to Perth Children’s Hospital and had 16 titanium plates placed in her head, which “hold her skull together,” her mother Fergil Mestanov said.
Earlier that day, she had jumped into the pool with her father, along with other children around them, and then decided she wanted to make the jump alone.
Fergil Mestanov said that when she saw her daughter in the hospital, Aliyah’s head “looked like a boiled egg and the shell had just cracked into fragments”
A year after the accident, Aliyah’s hair grew back, but she developed serious memory problems. Pictured: Aliyah with her mother, Fergil Mestanov
The girl remembers being confused by the instructions given to her by the attendant on the diving platform.
“They said ‘go’ and I was about to jump, and then they said ‘actually don’t go’. So I kept hanging on to the railing, swung to the edge and fell,” Aliyah said A current issue.
If she hadn’t hit a rope halfway through, slowing her fall, she could have died.
Ms Mestanov said that when she saw her daughter in hospital, Aliyah’s head “looked like a boiled egg and the shell had just cracked into fragments.”
A year after the horror accident, Aliyah’s hair, which had to be shaved off for brain surgery, has now grown back.
But she faces lingering problems.
She is now experiencing short-term memory loss, which Ms Mestanov fears will make Aliyah’s future uncertain.
That’s because she has trouble retaining what she is taught at school.
Due to her memory problems, she is also likely to need further surgery, help from specialists and extra guidance.
Aliyah (pictured in the sky) had jumped into the Mr Sippy pool with her father, as did other children around them, and then decided she wanted to take the plunge alone
Her parents pursued Mrs. Sippy for compensation, but got nowhere.
A Current Affair approached Ben May, Mr Sippy’s Sydney-based owner.
Mr May, who has four children, expressed his disgust at the images of Aliyah and agreed to contact her mother.
He later told Nine that the family’s Balinese law firm did not respond to requests for documents from Ms Sippy’s insurer.
May has committed to helping the family.